An Illinois state program covering some Peoria-area food banks and food pantries is suspended indefinitely due to federal funding cuts.
The Illinois Department of Agriculture [IDOA] announced the Local Food Purchase Assistance Program [LFPA] can no longer function, after the U.S. Department of Agriculture [USDA] informed states it was ending reimbursements for the program for any costs after Jan. 19.
In a media release, the IDOA says the program used federal funds to buy food from farmers at fair market value, then distribute it to community partners. More than 880 community sites have distributed food from 176 farmers across Illinois through the program, with 100% of the produce coming from farmers identified as “socially disadvantaged.”
The IDOA says Illinois was approved to spend $43 million in a multi-year agreement, and $17.8 million in federal funding remains outstanding. They say all invoices dated after Jan. 19 are being returned with no timeline for restarting reimbursement.
In Illinois, the LFPA program is administered by the University of Illinois Extension as IL-EATS. According to their website, the IL-EATS program functions by partnering with growers and producers through an application process, then the program purchases produce and distributes it among “lead agencies,” larger, regional agencies like food banks.
From there, the lead agencies pass the produce to “community partners,” smaller operations distributing the food through events like mobile markets, meals on wheels, food pantries and food box programs.
Midwest Food Bank's Peoria and Bloomington locations are both partnered as lead agencies in the program. Midwest Food Bank Peoria declined to comment on the potential impact of the LFPA program’s suspension when contacted by WCBU.
The end of funding reimbursements also includes the Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure [RFSI] program. IDOA says the RFSI program aims to provide “new streams of revenue to small and mid-sized agricultural producers.” IDOA was in the process of selecting grantees to award $6.4 million in funding.
“This program requires Illinois farmers to invest in upfront input costs, which is no longer possible given that the federal government has said they will no longer provide reimbursements,” said IDOA Director Jerry Costello II in a news release. “Without federal funding, the program that has helped to create local food systems in Illinois is unfortunately no longer able to operate.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker called the cut funding a “slap in the face to Illinois farmers” in the IDOA news release and attributed the reduction to the Trump Administration.
Other regional leaders in the field of food insecurity contacted by WCBU say they’re still evaluating the impact of the changes at this time.
